PITTSBURGH – For most of Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto’s MLB career, he has been able to work on his swing all the time.
On a few Sunday mornings during this season, Votto was the only player taking pregame batting practice on the field. While the team is stretching before the game, Votto often will take a few practice swings. He does the same thing away from the baseball park.
Then in May, Votto was hit by a pitch on his left thumb. He wasn’t able to grip a bat for a few weeks, but Votto still responded from that injury with one of the most impressive seasons of his career.
“I wasn’t able to grip a bat, but most of the work was done in the offseason, in spring training and in April,” Votto said. “Before I got hurt, I felt like I was trending in the right direction. The time off was just a good (restart).”
Votto finished his age 38 season with a .938 OPS, 36 home runs and 99 RBI. While he missed a month, he still ranks in the top-10 in MLB in home runs, RBI, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS.
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He also lived up to his sabermetrics goals for the season. In spring training, Votto said you can tell who the best hitters in baseball are by their barrel rate. It's a metric that captures how often a hitter gets a hard line drive, and Votto also ranked in the top-10 there.
Before he broke his thumb, Votto’s season had a rocky start. His bout with COVID-19 during spring training set him back at the beginning of the season, and he was hitting .226 with a .730 OPS when he got hurt on May 5.
During March, Votto was away from the team complex after testing positive for COVID-19. He said he missed swinging a bat and spending time with his teammates. Votto also missed an important part of his pre-season routine.
“Without getting into the specifics of COVID, I wasn’t able to dedicate that spring training time to conditioning,” Votto said. “Most of my spring training was COVID related, which is what it is.”
Votto played in a few games in the last week of spring training, and that was his only runway to prepare for the season. When Votto broke his thumb, he only had five homers and 17 RBI. He spent the next month on the injured list running, sprinting, sliding and “getting back into baseball shape.”
Votto did most of his work at Great American Ball Park, including a few lengthy workouts when the Reds were on the road. His focus was building up his endurance so he could be back at full strength when his thumb healed.
“As far as the swing, it was coming,” Votto said. "I mentioned on the radio broadcast (in May with Tommy Thrall and Chris Welsh), I thought I was going to run back and perform well. And I did.”
Votto returned on June 8, and he posted a .855 OPS over his first 15 games back. Among all of the Reds position players who went on the injured list this season, Votto performed the best over his first two weeks back in the lineup.
Then at the end of July, Votto had the best stretch of his career with nine home runs in seven games. During that stretch, Votto showed everyone that he “still has it.”
“He has honored every bit of his contract,” Reds right fielder Nick Castellanos said. “He could’ve mailed it in and just said, ‘Hey, this is what it is. I’m going to take me and enjoy myself.’ He still puts his occupation and playing baseball at the highest level that he can a priority."
Votto finished his 15th season as a candidate for a spot on the National League MVP ballot, and he remains one of the Reds most important players entering 2022.
This season, Votto said he was more disappointed than he had been in any other season when the Reds were eliminated. After the Reds had consecutive winning seasons in 2020 and 2021, Votto said it’s important that the Reds “push closer to 90 wins” in 2022.
“We have to continue to make improvements individually and sharpen our game,” Votto said. “We have to get better, and that’s the only way we’re going to get close to the 90-win threshold and get a playoff berth. A lot of people bring up how the Cardinals won 17 straight. It’s hard to make it to the playoffs if you win 83, 84 or 85 games.”
In addition to Votto, most of the Reds core players are in the middle of their prime. Jesse Winker, Luis Castillo, Sonny Gray and Tyler Mahle are at that point of their careers. In addition to those players, the Reds expect Jonathan India, Jose Barrero, Tyler Stephenson and Vladimir Gutierrez to grow into bigger roles in 2022.
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Votto has never had three consecutive winning seasons in his MLB career, and he said the Reds have an opportunity to take advantage of a talented roster entering next season.
“We’ve got good players and guys in the prime of their career right now,” Votto said. “We always want to win, we’re trying to be a perennial playoff team. As far as there being an urgency, I don’t feel one year’s urgency changes to the next. I’m also not in the front office, and I’m not very objective. But there are some guys who are really good players right now, and we have to take advantage of them.”
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